SPOILERS BELOW FOR THE LOVELY BONES

Yesterday I watched the movie, The Lovely Bones featuring Mark Wahlberg, the lovely Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon and the excellent Stanley Tucci. The movie is basically about the murder of Suzie Salmon, who refuses to let go of the living world and is stuck in the in-between. I didn't know it was a novel adaptation until I googled the movie to see who played the excellent Mr. Harvey. Oh yeah, there was also the girl who played Suzie, I think she's the girl from the nanny (if I'm not mistaken) I've seen her before but I'm not sure where. It didn't matter much.

The cast

Mark Wahlberg played the loving parent/father. You could tell that he had high hopes for suzie, particularly as it is shown that Suzie is the only daughter showing an interest to continue with his obsession-passion passed from his grandfather. I thought it was a nice touch to show that despite all the efforts of a father being obsessed with uncovering the truth and finding justice for his dead daughter, he is hit with the inevitability of a person's limitation, no matter how determined.

Rachel Weisz's character wasn't that well defined imo. Thought it was weird for her to walk out of the family. The dynamics of her relationship with her mother also wasn't shown. Why she had to come wasn't explained. If at all, it was her husband who faced more problems than her. A bit weird then that her mother had to come and do the house work when there were no indications that Weisz' character was too depressed to do anything. It was shown that she was perfectly okay, but just a bit upset that her husband has yet to let go of suzie's death. But she looked lovely and has lost a lot of weight though since her Mummy Return days. Susan Sarandon provided a bit of (supposed) comedy relief, but did not do much otherwise.

Stanley Tucci was excellent. He had child molester stamped all over his lousy moustache. He even perfected his perverted laugh and twitch. Eerie and creepy, everyone should really punch his face every time they pass by his house. In fact, the whole neighbourhood should open a ticket counter in front of his house and charge an entrance fee to punch his face. It'll be a full house and sell-out every day. His acting was that superb.

(Anyone with an eerie moustache and a terrible comb-over like this should immediately be locked up)

The movie

It was a good movie with the proper amount of pacing. Basically the movie portrayed how a family copes with the loss of a family member to a murder. At the same time, it showed Suzie's "journey" and stubborn refusal to let go of the world without actually doing anything.

There were bits of the movie that annoyed me though. I didn't quite take in the visualization of Suzie's heaven, although I suppose that may be how 14-year old girls think their heaven might look like. I don't know. In fact, I didn't fancy most of Suzie's involvement in the movie except her portrayal before she died. The girl who could see ghosts was also a let down. She didn't do much other than stealing Suzie's crush. And Ray Singh. what on earth was he thinking kissing an image of a dead girl? Necrophilia isn't cool, kids. Imaginary or not.

Again, my guess is that it's just the over-elaborated fantasy of Suzie but they could probably take out the whole of Suzie's part in the movie and the movie would've still been entertaining and wouldn't have suffered. I now know that I have no patience or time to layan the fantasies of a 14-year old.

At several parts of the movie, communication beyond the dead were hinted at which I felt was unnecessary, because it was thrown out of the blue and without any follow-up but thankfully the movie didn't really dwell on it. Perhaps it was just to show that it might have been possible? Beats me.

Where the movie excelled is not just the portrayal of totally believable characters, but at creating an atmosphere of suspense and dread. Not the over the top, scary "BEHIND YOU" thriller stuff, but something realistic. Suzie going in the "play house" and his sister breaking in were two examples of this. Harvey wasn't this "I refuse to die" guy, and our hero Mark Wahlberg getting his ass handed to him on a silver bat were excellent touches. I thought that was really refreshing to see. I also loved the ending where it shows that there are no happy endings. You do not always get the satisfying justice you crave, and even if justice is delivered you don't always get the satisfaction of knowing it. People have to move on.

Conclusion

So is it better than the "shit movie" Avatar? In a word: Yes. Take out the visual effects of Suzie's in-between world and you'd still have a good movie. Take out Avatar's superior visual world, and you're left with pocahontas feat. the smurfs. The fact that it was an adaptation from a novel explains certain things, like the end monologue (which didn't make sense really). Not that I'd go out and read the novel, but I wouldn't mind watching the movie again, mainly because of Mr. Harvey.

p/s:- forgot to mention the appearance of Christopher Moltisanti from the Sopranos. Massive letdown because he didn't swear though.